The Fishbowl Between the Worlds
by SarcasticBiscuit
Summary: [Novel] When they said seventh year was tough, they had no idea! Trying to stop Lily from killing James and somehow pass my N.E.W.T.s is always interesting. Oh, and I can breathe underwater. But with dark forces lurking just outside the castle walls, and that pesky Sirius Black always around, keeping a secret is a lot harder than I thought! (A retelling of Sun, the Moon and Stars).
1. I An Introduction

Chapter One

An Introduction

Pressure is a funny thing. For some people, it helps them to grow; to perform at their best. I know people on the house teams that swear that pressure gets their adrenaline going, helping them to outperform the opposition on the quidditch pitch. Yet, for others, pressure is the less satisfactory outcome of exams, professors and home life. Something that can leave you red faced and weepy without a moment's notice.

However, I'm talking, not about the pressure of putting the ideal amount of spin on the quaffle to score that final goal, or to open those exam results and see Outstandings where only days before you were convinced you would see Trolls. I mean literal pressure. The pressure of several tonnes of slightly murky water above your head.

The cottage where I live with my mum is a hop, skip and a jump from the coast, with the garden soil becoming sand beneath your bare feet and the wind tasting of salt, no matter the time of year. I go to the water's edge to think, or to forget, depending on how the mood takes me, and today, seeking the refreshing calmness of the world beneath the changeable skies and choppy waves, I dived in.

I read somewhere once that the sea, beneath the first initial twenty metres or so of chop and noise, is the most silent place on earth. A peaceful oxymoron of a graveyard; so quiet and yet so full of life. I personally choose to disagree, but then again, I am the only person I know who can speak Fish, so perhaps I'm just unfortunate in that way.

Ah, I can see I have alarmed you. Perhaps I should explain...

My mother never really speaks about my father and so I know very little about him. But as my mother thinks she's drowning in less than two feet of water, I assume that I get my water-loving tendencies from him. Perhaps he managed to ingrain his DNA with gillyweed? I mean, anything's possible.

Not that I have all of the creepy side effects of Gillyweed, I hasten to assure you. Not the webbed fingers or the flippered feet. But my lungs harden and slits open on my neck and sides, allowing me to draw oxygen from the ocean as easily as you do from the air. I suppose my bones must be different too, harder, more dense, otherwise my skull would currently be squashed against the rocky sea bed. But mostly I'm normal.

Well, as normal as I ever could hope to be as my friend Lily always tells me.

 _'Artemis'_ she tells me with a perfectly straight face. _'You are entirely mad.'_ And while not perhaps the most flattering of recommendations in the world, you take what you can get I guess.

I quite enjoy being Lily's wacky best friend actually, especially since I'm not exactly much to look at on the outside. People always say that it is what's inside that counts, but you try getting a seventeen year old girl to believe that! Tall and skinny, with small breasts and narrow hips, I have knees that are all too well acquainted with knobbly and elbows that can do serious damage when I need them to. Pale skin, not a throwback to some Icelandic relative, but a sure descendent of the fact that I spend very little time outside. Eyes the colour of raisons and hair more or less the same, I am neither ugly or hideous; simply a girl whose occasional habit of easting more sweets than I ought left me with a spattering of red marks on my forehead that were banished with the help of creams.

Being average looking is all well and good, but when Lily and I walk down the corridor, and Lily is beauty, there can be no mistake about that, it takes a lot for passersby to drag their eyes from her entirely symmetrical face and long auburn hair to my pasty complexion.

Truthfully, I used to mind quite a lot, especially back in second and third year when puberty hit and suddenly boys were this foreign species, and little red mountains decided to erupt all over my face whenever I wanted to look half-way decent. But once the worst of the hormones settled down and I realised that Lily was possibly the nicest person ever (Well, except when a certain someone is around but I'll get back to him later), I realised that the only person I was hurting with my silly jealousy was myself, and so I banished from my thoughts and we've got on just fine ever since.

As confessions go it isn't the most glamorous, but there we. I am not the most glamorous person and that is absolutely fine by me.

I checked my watch, a redundant motion as by now the water had long since invaded its inner workings and caused one of the hands to fall off. I always forget to do a water-repelling charm before I go swimming and often get through as many as fifty watches in a year. One of these days I will rake through my Gringott's savings and buy a spectacularly expensive one that quidditch players or deep sea magi-zoologists use, but for the time being I shall just bumble around, constantly late for everything until I can scrounge a new one.

Still, judging by the darkening water around me, and the lack of sunlight rippling on the surface waves, I guess it's time to be heading upwards and back to shore for dinner and final emergency packing for tomorrow. I'll run around like a headless bowtruckle for an hour or so, desperately trying to find the spell books I bought from Diagon Alley a few weeks ago until mum takes pity on my general incompetence and does it for me. After six years it's sort of traditional now.

Stretching out my arms, I kick off hard from the rocky outcrop and stretch towards the surface.

* * *

 **Hello Lovelies, I know I've been promising this for a while now and at last it has arrived! As you can see from the above chapter,** _ **The Fishbowl Between the Worlds**_ **(virtual cookies to all who recognise the title!) is a little different to** _ **Sun, the Moon and Stars**_ **. I will be tinkering with the plot slightly to make it flow more smoothly, and, obviously, the written style is rather different. I'm hoping that I've matured as a writer and that becomes obvious when this retelling is compared to the original.**

 **Plot-wise and characters: Well my loves, never fear, all your favourite characters will still be there. In fact, some may even get more screen time. I've been sat on quite a lot of background information regarding my characters so look out for plot bunnies!**

 **Of course, some sacrifices must be made and I am also going to be removing a few bits from the narrative and shuffling things around. I mean, you get to watch Sirius and Arty fall in love again so what's not to like?!**

 **Finally, you! My wonderful readers of STMAS are the reason I am rewriting this with the prospect of a sequel in the makings. Your support and reviews have given me the inspiration to recreate Arty's final year so THANK YOU!**

 **Okay, really the final point! Drop me a review and let me know what you think about the new chapter. It was your reviews that got me writing again and everyone knows that reviews are GOOD!**

 **Love and hugs**

 **A.A.A.**

 **Xxxxxx**


	2. II The Departure

**Hello my darlings, here's a lovely new chapter for you, introducing the wonderful Sirius Black. Let me know what you think of him!**

 **IMPORTANT NOTICE: Now that I have your attention lovelies, I have a little challenge for you. Throughout this chapter there are a large number of seventies references, as well as a couple of references to the Harry Potter books.**

 **Whoever gets the most will WIN a review to one of their stories!**

 **Happy reading!**

 **Love and hugs**

 **A.A.A.**

Chapter Two

The Departure

Caffeine is perhaps the most wonderful thing on the planet. I mean, _I_ would definitely put it up there with the discovery of the cocoa bean and the invention of the self-stirring cauldron. Whoever first discovered the efficacy of the coffee bean for ejecting sleepy teenagers from their beds should, in my humble opinion, be given the Order of Merlin, First Class.

I mean, come on! You have to agree with me right? Caffeine is the perfect companion to the stressed and bemused. A large cup in the morning acts like rocket fuel, resulting in the fastest shower and teeth brush eight-twenty-nine in the morning has ever seen. There's even the added bonus that when you do actually make it to class on time, the coffee has already worked its way through your system and you can escape from first period by snagging the toilet pass and heading off to wander the corridors.

And that's not to mention-

Sorry, I think I'm getting a little off-topic! When the marvels of caffeine are mentioned all it takes is one word and I'm off! Zoom, there she goes, dropping off the edge of reason. But aspersions of madness aside, I was very grateful this morning for the large cup I downed when I realised that I had overslept and that I needed to be at King's Cross in less than an hour. My mum, bless her, said I looked so comfortable bundled up like a sausage roll in my blankets that she couldn't bear to wake me which is kind, but not very good for my stress levels when I finally do wake up.

I usually adore the first of September. Often, autumn is peeking over summer's shoulder by this point and there's a definite crispness to the air. This year, stood on the bustling platform with my mother, I was not disappointed. It was cold, and the smoke billowing from the scarlet engine seemed to refract the cold light, breaking the air into shimmering waves, obscuring some and eliminating others.

Lily was guiding a gaggle of twittering first years and their anxious eyed parents through the crowds on Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters, the shiny badge adorning her robes glinting proudly. I almost fell over a boy so tiny that only the top of his head was visible over his trunk in my hurry to reach her and managed an ungainly wobble, tripping on one of my lolling laces. I flailed for a moment before righting myself with the help of a nearby fourth year's head.

"Lils," I gasped, the dash across the platform having robbed me of my breath. Man I really needed to work on my fitness.

She shepherded the uneasy first years onto the train and then threw her arms around me. Lily isn't exactly short but compared to my beanpole of a frame it was like being squeezed to death by a hobbit - if I was standing between them and second breakfast that is.

Lily gives the best hugs, not too pointy and without the ticklish face full of hair. It made me feel comforted and secure, rather like being enveloped in a cloud.

Though there are four other seventh year girls in my house, Lily and I are closest- though, after living in an enclosed space for six years, we've all learnt to put aside our differences. There's only so many arguments you can have when six people need to share a bathroom in a morning.

It takes me so long to get my trunk onto the train without a.) hurting myself, b.) hurting someone else, or c.) both of the above, that I almost miss it entirely and have to hurtle alongside as the Express chuffs out of the station. It is only thanks to the quick thinking of a boy stood in one of the doorways who grabs my arm and swings me up that I make it to Hogwarts at all.

How embarrassing! Can you imagine? I'd have to steal a ministry car or something and fly to school which I bet nobody sane will ever try to do. For starters, I can't drive _or_ fly, and then there's the fact that I have absolutely no clue where Hogwarts actually is. And even supposing I actually made it there in one piece without falling out of the sky or losing the train or myself in the process, I'd probably complete Murphy's sodding law of chance and crash into that horrible tree that was planted in my first year. Who is their right mind would deliberately plant a tree that enjoys crushing bones and gauging eyes? I don't know but I bet they need a really good slap.

I tend to avoid the Whomping Willow actually. Ever since Sirius Black dared me to try and touch the trunk back when it was first planted and I got my nose broken for my trouble. Eventually Davey Gudgeon, a rather foolhardy boy in the year below me nearly lost an eye and we were banned from going near it before my face, or dignity, could suffer any more bruising.

A voice startled me from my rather painful trip down memory lane.

"Hello Twinkle."

 _Of course_ , I realised belatedly, as a tall good looking boy, the one who had grabbed my arm and swung me up from the platform, smiled a crooked grin at me. _The one person I really did not want to see right now._ His arrogantly gorgeous face made my knuckles tingle with the desire to punch him on the nose.

"Black." I said curtly, before turning away and grabbing my trunk, hoping he would take the hint and go and annoy somebody else for a change. But, of course, he didn't, instead falling into step beside me as I began to fight my way through the crowd of students still littering the corridors.

"So how was your summer?"

The crowds parted easily for Black but I was reduced to using my elbows. A particularly greasy looking boy fell prey to my poking technique and shot me a filthy look. I tried not to run his toes over with my trunk but alas, due to the close confines of the corridor and Black by my side, I might have just clipped him. As he jumped back, clutching one foot, I dived through the newly opened gap, relishing the relatively less claustrophobic space.

"Good." I answered as I popped out of the last of the throngs into an empty carriage corridor. "Lily came and stayed for a bit and we went to see this muggle band she likes."

"Any good?"

"Well they all wore these ridiculous outfits, worse than when wizards try to dress normally in public. They were all in massive flares and weird glittery jackets and the like. I can't remember what they were called - Baba, or something maybe? Anyway, Lily enjoyed herself but I was a bit bored because there was a dragon at the end but it wasn't real. The Weird Sisters would have had a real dragon."

"Who are The Weird Sisters? I don't think I've heard them."

"They've only been together about a month at the moment." I answered. "Nobody's ever heard of them but I reckon they're going to be a real hit in a few years."

We walked on for a bit then Sirius mentioned Lily again.

"I heard she got the head girl badge," he commented. "Like anyone was surprised."

"Of course Lily was going to get it," I said loyally, peering into the compartments on either side of the passageway, trying to locate the rest of the Gryffindor girls that I could sit with until Lily finished the prefect's meeting.

"I bet she was livid when she found out who the head boy was." He grinned slyly, gauging my reaction.

"I assumed it would be Charles Macmillan." I said, non-plussed. "He might be a little boring but he knows the entire school rule book back-to-front."

"Nope." Black seemed to be enjoying himself.

"Oh, "I racked my brains. "Edmund Davies from Ravenclaw?"

"No again, though I did hear he made quidditch captain."

"Really?" I said absently, still filtering through the guys in our year. A terrible thought struck me. "Please tell me it's not Snape from Slytherin!"

"Snivellous? Hardly. I don't think he was even a prefect."

"Then who?" A thought dawned. "Oh! You mean-"

"Yup," He nodded with brimming smarminess.

"It's Remus isn't it?" I would have face-palmed, but for the company. "I should have guessed immediately. Tell him congratulations from me."

"It's not Remus."

"Of course it's Remus."

"It's truly not."

A thought more terrible than Snape crossed my mind. "It's not you, is it?" I asked suspiciously, narrowing my eyes.

I had finally reached the compartment where my friends were sitting but froze with my hand on the doorknob, not wanting Black to perceive the open door as an invitation to continue this conversation.

"Give me a little credit. Why on earth would I want to be head boy? I have spent that last six years making a studied effort to avoid responsibility wherever I go." He actually looked offended, as though wondering if I really knew him so little after so many years that I would even contemplate the idea of him wanting any form of responsibility at all.

"Stop teasing me Black." I warned.

He held up his hands. "It's James."

This time I froze for real, a lump of something that felt suspiciously like ice falling into the pit of my stomach.

From somewhere very far away, I could almost hear a scream.

...

Alice is a new-age hippie so it wasn't exactly a surprise when I sank into the seat next to her to see her tie-dyed shirt and mood rings on every finger. Her long blonde hair was ironed flat and, despite the fact that the underground hippie movement was totally over by the start of the seventies, there was a headband worn low on her forehead.

"Cool necklace," I commented, as a large pendant caught the light.

"Thanks," She smiled. "It's actually a rememberall but I set it in a gold piece because I'm finding gold really mellow at the moment."

"Far out." I grinned.

"I'm wearing mood telling lipstick too." She stretched her elfin smile wilder. "So when my mouth goes blood red you'd all better run."

Max, sat across from Alice on the opposite seat groaned theatrically. "You do realise that nobody does hippie any more. Even in the muggle word that ended years ago."

"You choose to express your individuality by not having any hair. I choose to love life in all its many auras." Alice smiled serenely.

Max, apparently, couldn't disagree with that and tugged once on her shorn hair, before re-opening her quidditch magazine.

Lizzie, from her corner, piped up: "Good for you Alice. After all, the sixties was all about liberation for women so we should express ourselves in any way we want."

Lizzie is five foot zero, with springy hair and a shy face. She's muggle born, so she and Max, who is half-blood with a large jumble of siblings of all blood types, tend to have all sorts of conversations that are unintelligible to the rest of us. She was currently wearing a black t-shirt with some sort of triangular crystal on the front. A rainbow was entering one side and was refracted out of the other.

Jazz, the final member in the compartment, was flicking idly through a magazine that proclaimed in flashing letters: _Free Pet Rock inside. Just an incantation and you too can have a pet that needs no looking after!_ Her soft dark hair was feathered away from her face, letting the light from the afternoon sun settle across her dark skin and there was an open box on the seat next to her.

Jazz's mum is a phenomenal cook and she is always sending Jazz new experiments to try to sell in their Confectionary and Bakery. This is great for the rest of us, of course, and Mrs Sandhu always makes sure to send enough to go around. The box was already mostly empty so I dived straight in and snaffled an éclair.

The journey is Hogwarts is always enjoyable. I spent most of it with my face resting against the glass, watching the countryside whizzing by becoming slowly more and more wild. Lily popped in for a couple of hours after her patrolling, but vanished again as the train began to slow, heading off to chivvy Potter into helping her with the students and luggage.

I had shrugged on my robes somewhere around the Scottish border and was eagerly await the moment when I could jump onto the platform when, from the corner of my eye, I spotted Frank's toad, Benjamin. I tried to grab him but he crawled away in panic and I scurried after him, fighting my way through the throngs of students eager to exit the train and head for the carriages.

I finally cornered Benjamin in a vacated carriage and made a wild grab but he eluded me, diving under one of the seats. I knelt down, peering into the gloom and inserted one arm, feeling around for his damp body.

"Nice look, Twinkle."

I sat up and whacked the back of my head on the overhang of the seat. Cursing under my breath, I managed to get an arm around the toad and hauled him out, tucking him into one of the pockets in my robes.

"Black." I said, trying to brush lint and dust bunnies off my sleeve. Giving up, I pulled out my wand and muttered: "Tergio."

"You know, bottom in the air is a good look for you." He added conversationally. "You should do it more often."

"And you're a misogynist and I wish I never had to see you again. We can't all get what we want." I replied tersely, trying to move past him into the now deserted corridor. He stuck out his foot and I nearly went flying.

"Really mature," I clenched my fists in an attempt to stop them from finding _Mr-I'm-So-Perfect's_ smug face. "But if you would excuse me, I have people to avoid."

"Hey, don't be like that." He caught my arm as I turned to open the train door. "I was saw that you hadn't gotten off the train and I wanted to make sure you were okay."

"Well as you can see, I'm fine." I waved my arms around. "Perfectly splendid. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a toad to deliver."

He had to have the last word of course, I pushed through in front of me, casually leaning in the doorway to block my path. His rangy grace didn't disguise the bands of muscle encircling his arms as he casually reached out, pulling on a lock of my hair.

"Is your hair usually this mud coloured?" He asks, so casually you might have thought he was asking if it was raining.

"Ooh, you, you utter rat!" Unable to contain myself I balled my fists and let fly. Unfortunately for me, the train chose that moment to judder to life and Sirius dropped lightly to the platform. With nothing to stop my momentum my punch went wide and - oh curses, why did they always come undone at the most inconvenient time possible? - I slipped on my lace, falling forwards, straight towards the stone of the platform.

...

Perhaps you are wondering what presided such an hostile response? Perhaps a short history lesson is in order...

 _First Year:_ Sirius Black, eleven, regressing to three, pulls my hair in a particularly dull History of Magic lesson. I received detention because, even if Professor Binns is so inobservant that he didn't notice he was dead, the ghost is worryingly good at noticing when somebody (okay, me) brings their textbook down, hard, squarely on the offender's head.

 _Second Year:_ James Potter and Sirius Black think it is hysterical to swap Lily's shampoo for green stink sap. Unfortunately, they get the wrong person's bottle.

 _Third Year:_ Sirius Black tries to kiss me behind the Herbology greenhouses. He receives a knee to the groin for his troubles.

 _Fourth Year:_ We ignore each other for the months following the kissing incident. I finally get some work done.

 _Fifth Year:_ Professor McGonagall asks me to tutor Black in Muggle Studies. I still testify that this is the reason I almost got a Troll in that exam. Yes, Sirius Black is capable of actually killing brain cells.

 _Sixth Year:_ The uneasy truce between us is shattered when he starts going out with Max from my dorm. Now, constantly under my feet, I have to put up with their endless snogging until she finally regains her sanity and dumps him.

 _Seventh Year:_ I _hoped_ we could go back to civilly ignoring each other.

Apparently I was wrong.

 **So there we are my darlings, another chapter. Don't forget my challenge!**

 **Have a wonderful day!**

 **Love**

 **A.A.A.**


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